Rebels Vow To Step Up War On U.s. They Deny Government Is Winning In Salvador

July 7, 1985|By Washington Post

PERQUIN, EL SALVADOR — Top-ranking Salvadoran guerrilla commanders have vowed to extend their fight in El Salvador and denied that the U.S.-backed government is winning the civil war.

In a rare press conference with American reporters Saturday, the commanders reaffirmed their intention to attack U.S. military personnel stationed in El Salvador. Four Marine embassy guards were murdered June 19 at a cafe in San Salvador, and the guerrillas claimed responsibility.

Attacks such as the one on the Marines ''raise morale for our people, without doubt, and demoralize our enemy,'' said Joaquin Villalobos, considered the leader of the five-man General Command of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

''We consider as military objectives all those who are engaged in this war of counterinsurgency against us,'' said Jorge Shafik Handal, another senior leader.

The commanders tended to steer away from discussing the cafe attack, but they said they planned to step up activities, including killings in the capital.

The commanders also held out little hope for a negotiated settlement, saying that time was on their side.

''There is no condition under which we would lay down our arms, because we are not willing ever to lay them down,'' Villalobos said.

The commanders blamed the United States for their failure to achieve victory, saying the Salvadoran armed forces recovered from setbacks in 1982 and 1983 only because of U.S. aid.

''We believe that except for the escalated process of U.S. intervention, we would have won the war,'' Villalobos said. He said that halting U.S. support for the government was the guerrilla front's ''fundamental'' condition for reaching a negotiated settlement.

The Salvadoran armed forces, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. assistance, have regained the military initiative since the rebels' last sustained offensive in late 1983. The Army has pushed the guerrillas back to Perquin and to areas in the north and southeast. It has forced the rebels to travel and fight in small units of several dozen, while in 1983 they moved in groups of hundreds, say rebel, Salvadoran Army and U.S. officials.